Construction of Silchester Estate began in 1969, built by the Greater London Council on land made available by the slum clearances of Notting Dale. The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea hold the freehold, and it is managed by the Kensington & Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation. The boundaries of the estate are formed by the Westway, the Western Cross Route and the elevated Hammersmith and City tube line.

The estate is composed of 4 x 20-storey towers and a number of low-rise buildings that range from cottages to 4-bedroom maisonettes. A number of additional infill developments have been added over the years. The beautifully landscaped Waynflete Square is the heart of the estate. The original buildings are constructed from in-situ reinforced concrete frames (in the towers) and slabs and crosswalls, with infill in a light-grey brick. This common palette unifies the diverse forms that make up the estate.

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea is currently undertaking costly feasibility studies into regenerating the entire estate and surrounding area, including blocks owned by various housing associations. The current “most viable” option would see around 680 dwellings demolished, including the towers and our public green spaces, as well as the loss of sporting facilities and gardens owned by the Westway Trust.

The estate has therefore clearly been earmarked for demolition. This month the Council will decide whether to consider pursuing its demolition agenda, and Silchester residents will find out whether their homes and community are scheduled for demolition to make way for a so-called “conservation area of the future”.

Silchester has a strong established community, many of whom have lived here since the Notting Dale slum clearances in the 1960s. We love our homes and gardens and want others to see the real Silchester, not hear the Council’s narrative as they value the estate in pounds per square foot.

Local artist Constantine Gras has been working for several years with residents on both the Silchester and Lancaster West estates around issues of community and regeneration. As part of our hosting of Open Garden Estates, there will be an exhibition of his work alongside tours of the estate and a community picnic.

Constantine Gras was the first V&A artist in residence to be based outside the museum with a studio on Silchester during 2014-15. For Open Garden Estates he will be presenting the community art work produced during his residency and including more recent work about housing and regeneration. This includes a programme of short films, drawings, architectural models and ceramic art made with children and adults at both Silchester and Lancaster West Estates. Constantine will be creating a large scale drawing and sculptural art work from 14.00 – 16.00 across both days. Please drop by to participate.

Somers Town, between Euston and King’s Cross stations, has an amazingly rich mix of social housing from the 1920s onwards. An afternoon walk, led by Camden Tour Guide Fabian Watkinson, will explore this intricate neighbourhood, focussing on Oakshott Court, a low-rise high-density development built in 1972-76 during the golden age of Camden’s Architect’s Department and completed by James Gowan.

The Granville Estate in Childs Hill (a 60s garden-style housing estate on a couple of acres – more than 9000sq m – of green space) is under threat from a developer’s plan to build 132 new homes on its grounds, and use much of the current public green space for private gardens for these houses, none of which are earmarked for social housing. Thanks to energetic campaigning by local residents (with an unprecedented 500-strong petition against the proposal) and the efforts of local councillors, the developers’ application was refused by Barnet’s planning committee nearly a year ago (March 2015) but the developers have now appealed. As a result, a public inquiry is to be held 28th June.

Barnet Council’s planning committee turned the application down (against their officers’ recommendation in favour) because a) it provides no social housing at a time when this is desperately needed for less well-off working people in London and b) it takes away more than 60 per cent of the publicly owned green space to provide private gardens for expensive houses, while the existing social housing tenants (and local Childs Hill residents) lose almost all of the green space close to their homes.

Two local residents groups, GERA (representing the estate) and CLAN, (representing the surrounding roads in Childs Hill), are fighting the developers’ appeal in the hope of gaining a better outcome both for the existing Granville Estate residents and the wider community of Childs Hill.

To mount a successful objection to the forthcoming appeal, they need both legal help and the support of everyone who wants to see inappropriate commercial development of this kind halted. With this intention, they will be campaigning to raise funds on Crowd Justice (www.crowdjustice.co.uk) from Monday, February 22nd.

If you feel strongly that publicly owned green space should remain in the public realm (rather than being given away for commercial profit) make people aware of the campaign and help support the David of local needs over the Goliath of profiteering property development.